감사시차는 결산일부터 감사보고서일까지의 기간을 의미한다. 감사시차는 재무제표의 적시성을 결정하는 중요한 기간이다. 지금까지 감사시차에 영향을 미치는 요인들을 확인하기 위한 많은 선행연구들이 있었다. 이러한 선행연구들에서 파악된 요인 외에 본 연구에서는 재무제표의 회계발생액이 감사시차에 영향을 미치는 중요한 요인이 될 수 있다고 보았다. 본 연구에서는 회계발생의 크기를 회계발생 심화성으로 측정하였는데 회계발생 심화성은 매출액에서 회계발생액의 절대값이 차지하는 비중이다. 본 연구에서는 374개 상장기업을 표본으로 선정하여 1998년과 1999년 양 연도에 걸친 분석을 실시하였다.
실증분석 결과, 단일변량분석과 다변량 회귀분석에서 모두 회계발생 심화성은 감사시차에 정의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 즉, 회계발생 심화성이 클수록 감사시차가 증가하였으며 또한 전기에 비하여 회계발생 심화성이 증가한 경우에는 전기에 비하여 감사시차가 비정상적으로 증가하였다. 이러한 실증 결과는 회계발생이 내포하는 불확실성과 관련하여 회계감사인이 높은 감사위험을 인식하고 감사시차를 증가시키는 것으로 해석된다.

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This study examines whether the audit report lag of Korean companies is associated with an accounting accruals level. Timely disclosure of audited financial statements is considered to be important since the financial statement plays an important role in reducing the information asymmetry. In this context, prior studies investigated numerous factors that affect audit report lag, i.e., the length of time taken by external auditors to complete audits. While many factors, including audit risk, financial condition, and audit technology, have been examined, no studies have examined the effects of accounting accrual levels. Accounting accrual levels, as measured by absolute accounting accruals divided by sales, have been argued to represent the level of uncertainty and potential errors in financial statements. Therefore, auditors who need to maintain a certain level of audit quality would devote more audit effort in the audit process for firms with high levels of accounting accruals, resulting in increased audit report lag.
For the empirical analysis, 374 listed firms are selected for the sample. Except for accounting accrual levels, many other factors may affect the audit report lag. For examples, Big 5 auditors, firm size, financial condition, net operating loss, qualified audit opinion, and extraordinary items are such factors. These factors are incorporated into statistical model as control variables. Both univariate and multivariate analyses are employed to test the prediction. Also, cross-sectional and time-series models are used to test. The empirical results indicate that, after controlling for other related variables, the accrual levels are positively related to the audit report lag. That is, as accrual level increases, the audit report lag increases, while controlling for other factors that have been reported to affect the audit report lag. This result indicates that auditors perceive a high audit risk for firms with high accounting levels and increases the audit efforts.
For sensitivity analysis, discretionary accruals of cross-sectional Jones' model are substitute for accounting accrual levels. But the result of this sensitivity test is the same as the main result. Another sensitivity analysis is conducted. The accounting accrual levels are divided into current and non-current accruals. The effect of non-current accruals on the audit report lag is significant, but that of current accruals is not. This sensitivity test result indicates that the effect of accounting accruals is due to the uncertainty perceived by the auditor and is not due to the characteristics of financial statements items such as accounting receivables, inventories and accounting payables. These sensitivity tests support the theoretical framework of our paper.

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